5G’s false start is over and the iPhone SE proves it
Screenshot by Nick Statt / The Verge When I rejoined The Verge in 2018, my first big assignment looked like an absolute peach - fly to the gorgeous Hawaiian island of Maui, sip cool drinks on the sand (The Verge paid for my trip; we don't accept junkets), and become one of the first journalists to experience blazing 5G speeds at a Qualcomm event. Instead, I found myself exposing a lie. The first real-world 5G test turned out to be a dud, the speeds misleading at best, covering up the fact Verizon and AT&T's millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G wasn't ready.
For the next three years, Verizon and AT&T successfully employed a fake-it-till-you-make-it strategy, enlisting politicians to help them win" 5G as if it were some kind of race." Their fastest 5G networks ran on a chunk of...